DESCRIPTION

This manpage should be up-to-date with version 0.13.1 of the programs.
The apt-zip-list and apt-zip-inst commands simplify the upgrade process
of a non-networked Debian host using apt(8), by using (preferably high-
capacity) removable media, like a ZIP drive.
apt-zip-list produces two files. One is a script that can be used on
another host (maybe not running a Debian system) to fetch packages
previously selected in dselect(8) or indicated in the command line, the
other apt-zip.options saves the options used by apt-zip-list to
indicates to apt-zip-inst what action to perform and/or which packages
to install. Various types of scripts can be generated, by specifying a
fetch method supported by the host that will fetch the packages. If
you prefer, the script may generate a tarball containing the fetched
packages.
The name of the script (as well as the name of the tarfile when using
the tar option) contains the name of the Debian host for which the
packages are to be fetched. Thus you can, using the same medium,
upgrade several hosts at the same time, provided you have enough space
on this disk. This should work with or without the tar option.
The script is written to the removable medium, which is mounted if
necessary, and then restored to the original unmounted state when
applicable. It is the responsibility of the user then to run the
script on a host that will fetch the packages, and to have them (or the
generated archive) copied to the removable medium.
When back on your Debian host, you just run apt-zip-inst, which will
take care of the script-produced files, and call apt(8) to install the
packages on your disk.

OPTIONS

COMMONOPTIONS--help,-h
Show summary of options.
--version,-V
Show version of program.
--medium,-m
Select a removable medium other than the site default.
--aptgetaction,-a
Select the action done by apt-get. Possible actions are dselect-upgrade,upgrade and dist-upgrade.
If --packages is not set the default is dselect-upgrade (See
also apt-zip.conf), if it is set none is selected.
--packages,-p
Comma-separated list of extra packages to install.
--fix-broken,-f
Run apt-get with the --fix-broken option. See apt-get(8) for
more details.
--skip-mount
Allow specifying a non-mountpoint directory to the --medium
option. This may help on laptops only getting point-to-point
networking without being routed to. This is also useful while
testing the program, as it allows sending the script into /tmp.
OPTIONSFORAPT-ZIP-LIST--method,-M
Select a method other than the default one. Only the wget
method is supported for now.
--options,-o
Specifies a set of options to be used while generating the
script. A warning is issued only if an option is unkown to apt-zip-list, but all known options may not be supported by all
methods. Options may be given a value, with the option=value
syntax.
Currently available options include:
tar[=gnutarprogram]
causes the dowloaded files to be grouped into a tarball.
The name of a tar program on the download machine can be
specified, if different from tar. Example: tar=gtar.
When used in conjunction with the restart option, a GNUtar must be specified, so that 2 tarballs man be
concatenated - this is only needed on the 3rd and
subsequent runs of the fetch script.
restart
causes the downloaded files to be grouped into a tarball.
--accept,-A/--reject,-R
Comma-separated list of accepted/rejected protocols for
download. By default are only accepted http and ftp.

CONFIGFILE

The /etc/apt/apt-zip.conf file can be used to set defaults: method,
removable medium, options, apt-get action and accepted/rejected
protocols. It is a self-explainatory bourne-shell script snippet. It
allows to provide site defaults for command-line options.

METHODAPI

A method is handled by an executable object (usually a script) placed
in the /usr/share/apt-zip/methods/ directory. This executable is fed
on standard input with the output of apt-get--print-uris.
It is communicated the state of requested options using for each option
an environment variables named OPTION_OPTNAME, where OPTNAME is the
uppercased name of an option.
Additional environment variables are also set, such as APTZIPVERSION,
APTZIPTARFILE, APTZIPINSFILE, and OPTIONS.

LIMITATIONS

· Only one disk can be used. If your packages do not fit on one, you
have to deselect some packages using dselect(8) or you have to select
a suitable list of package.
· The files on an Internet distribution site can change rather
frequently. It is up to the user to make sure the site was not
updated between the build of the fetch script by apt-zip-list and the
fetch itself, otherwise some required files may not be possible to
fetch.

FILES

/etc/apt/apt-zip.conf/usr/share/apt-zip/methods/

BUGS

· The restart feature is really slow. The tar command on Solaris(tm)
has an option to seek in the file instead of assuming a non-seekable
device, which greatly improves performance. GNU tar does not seem to
be able to do that.
· Virtually no error-checking is done. Examples of such error
conditions include: - out-of-diskspace on both the removable medium
and in apt archive cache when using tar option.
· Somewhat consequently, error-recovery also nears non-existence. As
examples, an interrupted fetch in tar mode has to be restarted from
zero; changes in status file between runs of apt-zip-list and apt-zip-inst are not detected and may lead to failure.

AUTHOR

The programs were written by YannDirson <dirson@debian.org>. It was
maintained previously by SantiBejar <tiarda@yahoo.es>, and currently
maintained by GiacomoCatenazzi <cate@debian.org> for the Debian
GNU/Linux system.
The source for this reference page is an SGML file, which can be
converted to UNIX manpages using docbook2man(1)